* The original codebase for freemarker IDE was dead ~8 years ago and
I
picked it up and
maintained it as part of JBoss Tools release so it could get regular
releases.
* 4.2.x was not a good release for freemarker tools, this was where
we
accepted external patches without having time to test and maintain
it.
I'm sorry for that :/
* It is included into Hibernate Tools since we use freemarker as
template language. (this is not a limitation, just stating we do
depend
on it)
* We have builds of it every night - so fixes are available as soon
as
they can be.
* Our regular public release cadence is about every 1-2 months,
For JBoss Tools? (Said FM version update was scheduled for something
like 4.4.0, 2016 September on Jira.)
Yes, we release milestones every 1-2 months. GA's every 3-4 months.
If an issue been closed and you think the fix is worthy to be in the
current
maintenance then speak up on the jira/mailing list. Having people
actually
speak up and show their interest can do wonders :)
but anyone want something more fresh can use the nightly.
Should we advise average users to install from the nightly repo
instead of from Eclipse Marketplace? I mean, do they only risk getting
an unstable FreeMarker IDE?
If they want the latest fixes then nightly is the place to go.
We also have individual sites for each component
(http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/mars/snapshots/builds/jbosstools-freemarker_4.3.mars/)
that *only* gives you updates to freemarker.
I just can't promise that will always work since it is not the URL's we
test from.
(BTW, I have tried using JBoss Tools nightly builds Eclipse update
site few months ago. Surely it's much faster than waiting for stable
releases, but for some reason FreeMarker IDE wasn't updated as often
as it was committed into. I have ended up checking it out from GitHub
and build it locally.)
If you are seeing commits made and the build not being updated within
24hrs please
raise that on [email protected] so we can become aware
there
is something wrong.
* We merge in any PR's we can find time to do. (as I hope you can
verify)
* We do not support multiple patch streams for multiples versions of
Eclipse since we just don't have the time/resources to do so. But
afaik
latest mars Freemarker can be installed on even older versions. Just
not
verified.
That said, I very much know we could do more fixes/changes, but I
have
always said: If anyone shows up and are willing to do the testing and
the builds we can arrange for this individual component to do more
builds on its own.
Just need someone to do that work.
Yes, of course, that's why I have asked help on the FreeMarker dev
list. (I didn't mean to blame JBoss Tools developers or something like
that.) I myself try to focus on FreeMarker core development. That goes
slowly enough because of lack of resources, so I try to dish out other
tasks to others. (Not mention, that if I do everything, that's won't
be acceptable for ASF either.)
:)
Just like I/we took it on many years ago, someone else can continue
that.
Only wish I have is that the main features don't break installation
API
and listens/help do fixes when JBoss Tools is about to release.
So if you or someone else want to jump in and do more releases of
freemarker in addition to the one we already do - let me know and
we'll
figure it out!
Thanks for the detailed answer!
No problem. I'm sorry I can't follow freemarker-dev regularly anymore,
but
just want to let you know that if you do see problems feel free to post
on jbosstools-dev or jira.
We do listen and are happy to help or get help to solve whatever we can.
/max
http://about.me/maxandersen
